First, the rich world sought to get richer by milking the emerging markets. Then the emerging markets had their revenge by continuing to boom while the first world failed. But now it seems the pendulum is swinging back yet again. This news story reports that a UK telecom firm has decided to locate it's call centre in the north of England rather than India.
That would have been unthinkable any time in the past ten years as offshore outsourcing, notably to India, became the all-pervasive orthodoxy in UK business. This despite the intense irritation of UK consumers in having to deal with massive cultural and linguistic handicaps every time they tried to interact with Indian-English call centers.
But it seems the rising costs in India and the increasingly second-world nature of parts of the UK mean that it's now just as economic, or more so, to base a call centre in Burnley as in Bombay. The emerging markets are no longer where they were, or what they were. In a flat world, economic opportunities will quickly shift back to wherever is most cost-effective. Brazil should take note.
PS: Obviously most cost-effective doesn't necessarily mean cheapest.
Update: Santander now bringing call centres back to UK.
Update 2: India's call centre growth stalls.
That would have been unthinkable any time in the past ten years as offshore outsourcing, notably to India, became the all-pervasive orthodoxy in UK business. This despite the intense irritation of UK consumers in having to deal with massive cultural and linguistic handicaps every time they tried to interact with Indian-English call centers.
But it seems the rising costs in India and the increasingly second-world nature of parts of the UK mean that it's now just as economic, or more so, to base a call centre in Burnley as in Bombay. The emerging markets are no longer where they were, or what they were. In a flat world, economic opportunities will quickly shift back to wherever is most cost-effective. Brazil should take note.
PS: Obviously most cost-effective doesn't necessarily mean cheapest.
Update: Santander now bringing call centres back to UK.
Update 2: India's call centre growth stalls.
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